IMPROVABLE LANDS. 21 



IMPROVABLE LANDS. 



For all the above purposes, the forests are of vast immediate 

 and prospective importance. A knowledge of the best and most 

 economical means of managing and enlarging them, is no less 

 important. 



According to the latest returns, the woodlands of Massachu- 

 setts cover 729,792 acres. There are, besides, 955,000 acres of 

 unimproved lands, and 360,000 reported as unimprovable. In 

 all, there are 2,044,792 acres not occupied by buildings or cul- 

 tivation, out of the 4,491,812 acres which are estimated to con- 

 stitute the whole territory. Probably the whole of the unim- 

 proved and those called unimprovable lands, might be turned 

 into forest ; as it is very questionable whether any land, except 

 the ocean beach, should be considered unimprovable. The 

 least promising kinds of surface are, that covered with loose, 

 drifting sand, that of bare, rocky hills, and that of marshes 

 covered with sedge. 



The most barren sands along the sea-coast of France have 

 been successfully sown with pines. Of the details of the pro- 

 cess, an account will be given in the chapter on trees of that 

 family. No part of the sandy territory of Massachusetts, is so 

 hopeless as the region which has thus been actually converted 

 into forest. Our climate is quite as favorable as that of France 

 to the growth of evergreens. We have, among our native trees 

 of that family, a much greater variety, and we may avail our- 

 selves, if necessary, of the very kind of pine so successfully 

 experimented upon in that country. 



Many acres now under cultivation, and poorly repaying the 

 labor spent on them, might be advantageously sown or planted 

 with pines. 



The most impracticable of our rocky hills were originally 

 covered with trees. Sufficient portions of them remain in that 

 state, to show that all might, with a little pains, be redeemed to 

 a productive use. There are several kinds of trees which re- 

 quire very little soil ; some of them need little more than a foot- 

 hold in the earth. Several oaks, birches and pines, are often 



